Sunset Boulevard - Latest Sony/RCA release Aug 2025
Posted: August 5th, 2025, 5:01 pm
I have received my copy in the post. The album contains 5 cds, all recorded in 70s.
I copied the following from elvisinfonet.com:
"Sunset Boulevard' Review: A pertinent review of Elvis' new release posted on AllMusic by Mark Deming.
In part he notes...
..In March 1972 Parker struck a deal with MGM to make a documentary about Elvis Presley on tour and the filmmakers wanted to include footage of Presley working in the studio and rehearsing. This led Presley to RCA Records' Studio C in LA where he cut seven new songs and rehearsed for his road trip.
2025's Sunset Boulevard offers a detailed look at the 1972 Los Angeles sessions, as well as ten tracks he recorded in L.A. in March 1975. One thing that sets these recordings apart is that Presley chose to record with his road band who had been working with him since 1968. His TCB Band boasted top-notch musicians who knew Presley's work habits well, including James Burton on guitar, Glen D. Hardin on piano and Ronnie Tutt on drums -- and they give these tracks excellent chops and a warmth and connection with the songs most studio crews couldn't have matched.
While the L.A. recordings were heavily overdubbed for their initial release, for Sunset Boulevard, producer Matt Ross-Spang has given them new mixes that strip away the excess for a clearer picture of what Presley and his band sounded like in the moment.
The results find Elvis in excellent voice and giving the songs genuine emotional commitment. While the set opens with "Burning Love," one of Presley's most potent rockers of the 1970s, the majority of these songs deal with sadness and broken hearts, and the timing was significant. In 1972, his marriage to Priscilla Presley was on the verge of collapse, and on "Separate Ways," "Fool," and "Where Do I Go from Here," you can hear his regret and sense of loss as he wonders how he went so far wrong. Many have said Presley never fully rebounded from his divorce, and the 1975 tracks still reflect a downbeat mood, though "Shake a Hand" and "I Can Help" find him searching for a bright side.
Presley and his team were chronically unimaginative when it came to finding material and thought in terms of singles rather than albums, and listening to this material, it's easy to imagine that with a bit more care and imagination, Presley could have turned these recordings into one of the greatest breakup albums of all time -- a mature but wounded portrait of a broken heart.
The set also includes recordings of two rehearsal sessions held at Studio C in July 1970 and August 1974. Frankly, these are of dubious value; it's instructive to hear the give and take of Elvis and his band, and he has fun getting silly on some tunes, but the quality of the audio is substandard: hollow and boomy in 1970, harsh and crackly in 1974.
The studio masters and their accompanying outtakes make Sunset Boulevard a superior collection of late-period Presley, but think of the rehearsal recordings as a bonus that you needn't examine very often.
-- Go HERE for his full review
(News, Source;AM/EIN)"
I have been listening to this album non stop since it arrived friday morning last (1st Aug 2025). I am hearing songs I am very familiar with that sound significantly different from the original releases. I am totally delighted with this album, in fact I have bought a second copy which I am keeping in its original wrapping. I hope this album is a big seller, so I am encouraging fans to get out and buy it.
9
I copied the following from elvisinfonet.com:
"Sunset Boulevard' Review: A pertinent review of Elvis' new release posted on AllMusic by Mark Deming.
In part he notes...
..In March 1972 Parker struck a deal with MGM to make a documentary about Elvis Presley on tour and the filmmakers wanted to include footage of Presley working in the studio and rehearsing. This led Presley to RCA Records' Studio C in LA where he cut seven new songs and rehearsed for his road trip.
2025's Sunset Boulevard offers a detailed look at the 1972 Los Angeles sessions, as well as ten tracks he recorded in L.A. in March 1975. One thing that sets these recordings apart is that Presley chose to record with his road band who had been working with him since 1968. His TCB Band boasted top-notch musicians who knew Presley's work habits well, including James Burton on guitar, Glen D. Hardin on piano and Ronnie Tutt on drums -- and they give these tracks excellent chops and a warmth and connection with the songs most studio crews couldn't have matched.
While the L.A. recordings were heavily overdubbed for their initial release, for Sunset Boulevard, producer Matt Ross-Spang has given them new mixes that strip away the excess for a clearer picture of what Presley and his band sounded like in the moment.
The results find Elvis in excellent voice and giving the songs genuine emotional commitment. While the set opens with "Burning Love," one of Presley's most potent rockers of the 1970s, the majority of these songs deal with sadness and broken hearts, and the timing was significant. In 1972, his marriage to Priscilla Presley was on the verge of collapse, and on "Separate Ways," "Fool," and "Where Do I Go from Here," you can hear his regret and sense of loss as he wonders how he went so far wrong. Many have said Presley never fully rebounded from his divorce, and the 1975 tracks still reflect a downbeat mood, though "Shake a Hand" and "I Can Help" find him searching for a bright side.
Presley and his team were chronically unimaginative when it came to finding material and thought in terms of singles rather than albums, and listening to this material, it's easy to imagine that with a bit more care and imagination, Presley could have turned these recordings into one of the greatest breakup albums of all time -- a mature but wounded portrait of a broken heart.
The set also includes recordings of two rehearsal sessions held at Studio C in July 1970 and August 1974. Frankly, these are of dubious value; it's instructive to hear the give and take of Elvis and his band, and he has fun getting silly on some tunes, but the quality of the audio is substandard: hollow and boomy in 1970, harsh and crackly in 1974.
The studio masters and their accompanying outtakes make Sunset Boulevard a superior collection of late-period Presley, but think of the rehearsal recordings as a bonus that you needn't examine very often.
-- Go HERE for his full review
(News, Source;AM/EIN)"
I have been listening to this album non stop since it arrived friday morning last (1st Aug 2025). I am hearing songs I am very familiar with that sound significantly different from the original releases. I am totally delighted with this album, in fact I have bought a second copy which I am keeping in its original wrapping. I hope this album is a big seller, so I am encouraging fans to get out and buy it.
9